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The Reformist daily Etemaad has reported that three well-known Reformist politicians have met with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The politicians were former MP and vice president for Legal affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, Hojjat al-Islam Majid Ansari, Hojjat al-Islam Abdol Vahed Mousavi Lari, a former Interior Minister and Eshaq Jahangiri, a former Minister of the Industry. It has also been speculated that Jahangiri could be a potential presidential candidate put forward by the Reformists.

According to Etemaad the last official meeting between members of the Reformist camp and the Supreme Leader was 16 June 2009 when representatives of the presidential candidates attended a meeting in order to convey the latter’s views on key issues. Moreover, it is claimed that since that day there have been no reports of meetings between the Supreme Leader and the Reformists.

Ansari, who is also a member of the Reformist Assembly of Combatant Clergy, described the meeting as “very good” and added that a number of the major issues facing the country were discussed. Details however, were not forthcoming. But apparently the upcoming presidential election was not addressed in the course of the meeting.

The meeting is significant insofar as since Iran’s controversial 2009 presidential election which saw the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a considerable swathe of Reformist politicians have been jailed and pushed to the side lines of Iranian political life. Two of the major Reformist political organizations, the Organization of the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Iran Participation Front, were also dissolved.

Mostafa Tajzadeh, former deputy minister of the interior and one of Iran’s leading Reformist figures, currently imprisoned in Evin jail, has written a highly critical letter addressed to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, stating, “the result of your support for [Bashar] Assad is a war between Shia and Sunni.”

Tajzadeh stated that Khamenei’s “absolute defense” of the Syrian president was his biggest mistake of the last two years, adding that continuing such a policy will result in the expansion of the war to Lebanon and Iraq.

Tajzadeh also stressed that the confrontation in Syria is not merely one of the United States and West against Russia and China, but has been transformed into an “arena of struggles” between Salafi forces and non-Salafis, Shia Syrians, Iraqis and Lebanese.

Tajzadeh, who has written a number of critical letters to Iran’s leader since his arrest following Iran’s 2009 presidential election, added that following the Arab Spring it is clear that the people of the region have rejected the Iranian model for emulation. He further argued that the Arab world’s rejection of the Iranian model is due to the “absolute power of a person over 70 percent of the powers” of the state, claiming that “such a regime is similar to authoritarian regimes like that of the Pahlavis, Mubarak, Qaddafi and Assad.”

Hojjat al-Islam Mehdi Taeb, the head of the Ammar Strategic Base (an organization established to fight the “soft war” against the Islamic Republic of Iran), in a meeting with university student members of the Basij paramilitary force, has stated: “Syria is the 35th province [of Iran] and a strategic province for us. If the enemy attacks us and wants to appropriate either Syria or Khuzestan (in southern Iran), the priority is that we keep Syria.”

Taeb added: “If we keep Syria, we can get Khuzestan back too, but if we lose Syria, we cannot keep Tehran … Syria had an army, but did not have the ability to manage a war inside Syria’s cities. It is for this reason the Iranian government suggested that “in order to manage an urban war you must form a Basij …The Syrian Basij was formed with 60,000 [members] of the party of God [the religious and ideologically zealous] who took over the war in the streets from the army”.

Taeb also commented on the upcoming presidential election stating: “The main choices of the Reformists are [Mohammad Ali] Najafi, [Mohammad Reza] Aref, and Eshagh Jahangiri, although they still haven’t reached a conclusion on them. Hojjat al-Islam Mousavi Khoeiniha [the head of the Reformist Association of Combatant Clerics] says don’t participate in the election, but [former President Mohammad] Khatami says we will participate and his argument is that if we don’t enter [the election] we will forever be eliminated … The hit we [Taeb is now referring to himself and fellow radical Principalists] took from the last election was that Ahmadinejad was not a team player. If he stayed with the team of the ninth government [Ahmadinejad’s first term], he would have become a legend and the difficulties endured because of sanctions wouldn’t have been as much.”

A number of outlets offer conflicting reports regarding the death of the Revolutionary Guards’ commander, Hossein Shateri, the chief of Iran’s Headquarters for Reconstruction in Lebanon. Abna news agency reports that this Commander of the Revolutionary Guards was killed in Lebanon at the hands of “agents of Israel.”

It has also been reported that Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force, visited the home of Shateri, expressing his condolences to the family of the deceased. Soleimani is also said to have confirmed Shateri’s death soon after it was initially reported.

His funeral ceremony was held Thursday [Feb. 14] in Tehran; it was attended by high-level members of the IRGC command.

While Fars News doesn’t specify the location of Shateri’s death, the non-Iran based website Digarban has reported that a well-known pro-Hezbollah activist and also the Iran-based website Blogh.ir have reported that Shateri was killed along with two other companions in Aleppo by “mercenaries of the Zionist regime.”

According to Fars, Shateri, who also went by the name of Engineer Hesam, was responsible for the reconstruction of southern Lebanon in the aftermath of Hezbollah’s 33-day conflict with Israeli forces in 2006.

Mashreq News has posted several photos of Shateri while on duty in Lebanon.

In other news

The Reformist daily Etemaadreports that former Health Minister, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, might be presented by Principalist women organisations such as the Society of Zeinab as a possible presidential contender.

“If during her time at the ministry Dastjerdi was faced with little commotion and rarely made political statements, but her removal according to many was very “political” and has been announced as following disagreement with some of the president’s and his supporters’ demands and resistance to the removal of her deputy Mohammad Baqer Larijani from the Chair of the Medical Faculty of the University of Tehran.”

The head of the Basij paramilitary, Commander Mohammad Reza Naqdi has spoken out regarding both Iran’s negotiations with the P5+1 [ithe five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany] stating: “Some people naively think negotiations with America are important and fruitful, when it is more than 10 years that we are negotiating with the P5+1 group and since these negotiations over 10 years haven’t had a result, negotiations with America won’t work either.”

“They want to pull down the flag of combat against Arrogance which is in Iran’s control, when the Americans have undertaken the most belligerent behaviour in history with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the people, and all the limbs of America commit evil against Iran and with its own language, [America] announces its intention to negotiate.”

Moreover, while not invoking former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani by name, there was little doubt about who Naqdi was criticizing when he said: “These are the same extremists that in the days of the sedition did not show any compassion for Friday prayers, Jerusalem Day and Ashura. How do they today partake in gestures of moderation? Someone who resists the Judiciary over the trial of his family cannot espouse moderation.”

Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a prospective presidential contender, in a gathering of media outlets from Tunisia, Yemen and Afghanistan, has stated, “When Arab countries understood the hand of America and some reactionary Arab governments are active in Syria, they moved to the side of a political solution.”

Velayati added: “The people of Syria were in pursuit of reform of their own affairs and this was a rightful demand and in order to reach it they embarked on a struggle with the government…These countries are moving towards the formation of a unified Islamic community and transforming the Islamic world into one of the great global powers…In every country the people decide to cast an undesirable government aside and put a desirable government to use.”

The hard-line Ayatollah and patron of the Endurance Front for the Islamic Front, Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, at a doctrinal meeting for the Law Enforcement Forces said that “humanity without religion is mere bestiality,” complaining that after 34 years since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, “the signs of a proclivity towards humanism” is still seen the books and articles of Iranian writers.

The Revolutionary Guards have issued a statement for the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution warning that “any action which destroys unity is deserving of decisive rebuttal”.

“The spirituality and guidance of the Supreme Leader in various areas, in particular in the field of the preservation of national unity and the interests of the regime and the revolution, are recognized by the Revolutionary Guards as the “clarifying explanation” for all. Without doubt any kind of action which destroys unity and prepares the basis for deviant movements and controversy in the media of the enemy is playing a role in the plans of the enemy”.

It is of course important to read this statement against the recent backdrop of the all out and very public war of words which has been unfolding and ongoing between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Majles Speaker Ali Larijani, who was pelted with shoes and prayer stones in one of Iran’s most holy shrines by Ahmadinejad supporters on Sunday. A series of videos have also been leaked in recent weeks, which appear to implicate the allies of the two men in financial corruption and political horse-trading.

Digarban, quoting Fars News, has reported that online activism calling for the boycott or decreased participation in this year’s presidential election, or protests, sit ins and strikes has been announced illegal.

The announcement was made by the Working Group for the Determination of Criminal Content, which is responsible for internet censorship inside Iran.

Commander Yahya Rahim Safavi, former Revolutionary Guards chief and advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Iran’s joint chiefs of staff, in the course of a meeting of ex-servicemen in Tehran has warned of the prospect of a “new sedition from some inside [the country]” and also ominously stated that if “we sense a danger to the regime, we will enter the arena.”

Commander Yahya Rahim Safavi, advisor to the Supreme Leader and the Joint Chiefs of Staff has stated, “the Americans think they must have a presence in West Asia and North Africa to ensure the survival and security of the Zionist regime and to create a strategic rival in confrontation with Iran, this rival is Turkey”.

Referring to a 2012 United States’ National Security Report approved by President Barack Obama, Safavi said, “in this document of the Americans they introduced this as the biggest economic and security threat to America and in this same document Iran is mentioned as a regional threat and they have strengthened the Fifth naval fleet in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and Indian Ocean, so they can preserve their dominance in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and control the global economy and energy”.

Safavi emphasized further, “in regional issues and matters, the Americans don’t want Iran to be the first power of the region, and because of this they created the issues in Syria and with the money of some Arab countries and the politicking of America and deputyship of Turkey, they pursue Syria’s destabilization”.

Hamid Reza Taraghi, a prominent member of the Islamic Coalition Party, in an interview with Asr-eIran, has said that while the regime “in the next couple of months has the capacity to tolerate Ahmadinejad, if Ahmadinejad is to be deposed, a problem will not occur for the regime.”

Taraghi went on: “In the end efforts will be made to see this government reaches its culmination, but if it doesn’t, we are not very worried that a problem will occur in the country. Naturally, if someone is after disrupting the conditions of the country, he is playing a role in the enemy’s puzzle and the regime can solve these kinds of issues.”

Majles Speaker, Ali Larijani has released his full rebuttal of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Sunday’s Majles session on his own personal site, which has since spread across the web and social networks. Following a fiery exchange, Larijani refuses to permit Ahmadinejad to speak any further and accuses him of violating the Majles protocol.

Meanwhile it seems that a source close to the Ahmadinejad government have released the video and voice recording of a private conversation allegedly between former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi and Fazel Larijani, brother to Majles Speaker, Ali Larijani, in which Fazel Larijani seems to be requesting political favours in exchange for economic inducements. Ahmadinejad read out the text of the conversation in parliamentary session relating to the impeachment of the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Abdolreza Sheikholeslami.

Baztab-e emruz has published a controversial article, the veracity of which is still to be verified, on another highly controversial video which has been edited and placed on YouTube and which appears to implicate Fazel Larijani in a 30 billion toman bribery scandal.

Since publishing this story and a number of others Baztab has claimed that it has been under heavy cyber-attack and at the time of writing baztab.net is down and inaccessible.

The article in question claims that one of the men featured in the apparently secretly taped video, a businessman and multi-millionaire oil broker by the name of Babak Zanjani, and the man claiming Larijani attempted to extract the bribe from him, is linked to “the mafia patrons of Ahmadinejad” and Saeed Mortazavi.

Baztab alleges that the video has been released by Mortazavi and “wayward security forces”. The video allegedly features Mortazavi, Zanjani, and another man by the name of Hassan Mir Kazemi.

Baztab posts a photograph of Mir Kazemi, who had been photographed wielding a gun on a motorbike in the aftermath of the 2009 election protests in which a number of protesters were shot by plainclothesmen.

Baztab has also posted pictures of Mir Kazemi and Zanjani on the latter’s private jet and alleged that the two were involved in “money laundering” outside the country.

The article then goes on to allege in connection with the charges of money laundering that Zanjani was given “tens of billions of dollars’ worth of oil prior to the intensification of sanctions without the relevant guarantees”, and through numerous deals over the course of the last five years has accumulated considerable wealth.

Baztab also claims that Mir Kazemi is “of the Mafia elements supported by Ahmadinejad, with considerable outstanding bank loans were paid with special support of his companies”.

Baztab is effectively implying that the Ahmadinejad government covered Mir Kazemi’s bad loans, which he never intended to repay.

Baztab then features a picture of Mir Kazemi alongside the Ahmadinejad’s Minister of Industry, Ali Reza Tahmasebi, at one of former’s companies, prior to his re-election in 2009.